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Today, former senators Tom Daschle and Bob Dole released a plan for health care reform that is being hailed a bipartisan way forward. Headlines blare about the Daschle/Dole plan for health care. But were these two to not have had illustrious careers in the Senate, the headlines would tell a far different story: “Health Care Lobbyists Release Health Care Plan.”

Both Daschle and Dole work for a major Washington, DC lobbying firm, Alston & Bird. Many of Alston & Bird’s major clients are from the health care sector including the American Hospital Association, HealthSouth Corp, and pharmaceutical companies Abbott Laboratories, Bayer, Celgene, and Mylan Laboratories. In total, Alston & Bird is currently representing 31 clients from the health care sector. Of the $2,730,000 reported income received from clients, nearly 50% of that, $1,070,000, comes from these 31 health care clients.

This looks like another benefit of the revolving door. You can release a legislative proposal from outside of Congress and the first thing anyone thinks of is your previous job and not your current one.

The following 31 companies and organizations are listed as health care sector clients of Alston & Bird:

Any package that emerges will preserve the country’s private insurance system, at least for now. But it could nonetheless bring sweeping changes, requiring that everyone be insured, creating a government health plan to compete with commercial carriers, and perhaps taxing employer-provided health benefits.

the influential Finance Committee — delayed the release of its proposal until after the Fourth of July because of emerging concerns about its cost. In the House, hearings on a draft proposal are scheduled for next week.

About 10,000 salaried Chrysler workers no longer face the threat of taking a two-week unpaid furlough this summer because the company’s expenses throughout its 41-day Chapter 11 bankruptcy were less than anticipated.

So what are the elected officials in Boone County or Growth Dimensions doing regarding this “recovery program” ?

All 102 Illinois counties and eight cities divided up $1.67 billion in federal bonding power. McHenry County received the sixth largest chunk, behind Chicago and Cook, DuPage, Lake and Will counties, according to IRS figures. Cities and counties nationwide have until Dec. 31, 2010, to issue the bonds.

The Internal Revenue Service informed [McHenry] county last week that it could issue up to $18.3 million for government projects and $27.5 million for private projects. The bonds can be used for capital projects or equipment purchases, Munaretto said.